Insiders suggest the spinoff station will be the all-sports “104.3 the Fan” KKFN. And word is, it could be snapped up by a noncommercial suitor. Frankly, I’d love to see Colorado Public Radio’s Open Air (KVOQ 1340 AM) get an FM position so that those of us listening in cars wouldn’t have to depend on the weaker AM signal.

Assisting in this guessing game is Chuck Lontine, a broadcasting veteran and retired investment banker with many Denver radio station deals to his credit.

“This is a perfect opportunity for CPR to acquire a strong FM,” Lontine said. The idea would be either to boost KVOD to a stronger channel or move Open Air to an FM home on 88.1.

He also suggests Rocky Mountain PBS, which owns jazz KUVO-FM at 89.3, could use a partner, while Community Radio for Northern Colorado’s KUNC at 91.5 “has longed to enter the Denver-Boulder metro for many years.”

Does KUNC have the means to buy into the market? “I believe that KUNC’s followers are in a strong enough position to make a Denver signal both a reality and attainable. Station manager Neil Best is one of the more passionate individuals I have have ever worked with and I strongly believe that he could get it done.”

Lontine told a radio trade report there are possible suitors on the Christian radio side and in the commercial arena, including Latino Broadcasting’s heritage KBNO at 1280, which has “a remarkable opportunity to enter the FM world, to compete with powerhouse Entravision” and its regional Mexican KXPK at 96.5.

Add to the list of guesses: Maybe the spinoff won’t be The Fan but instead “Cruisin’ Oldies 950” KRWZ. Any others?

It is with thinly concealed glee that talk-radio host, blogger and author David Sirota discusses the tough times for newspapers in the digital era in a piece for Harper’s (to be published Tuesday). He recounts the downside of single-newspaper towns (like Denver since the Rocky Mountain News folded), the trouble with media baron owners (like Dean Singleton), the trouble with newspaper publishers having too much local political clout and the trouble with reporters losing the sense of competition in single newspaper towns. There is some truth in these things — we all wish there were still multiple newspapers flourishing in America’s cities –but if you’re going to describe life inside a newspaper, where are the quotes from local reporters who are living in the one-paper newsroom?

The Rocky is gone, but what about the solid investigative reporting by several TV stations in Denver, the efforts of the alternative weekly Westword, the increasing role of public radio, the Denver Business Journal, and Laura Frank’s I-News investigative reporting collective? All are doing good work and posting/publishing/broadcasting and pushing into social media on a regular basis, more than filling the void.

Sirota is free to dump on the Post (his contract with the paper was terminated). From personal experience, I can say I have never been directed to write anything, politically or otherwise, by the folks at the top. To the contrary, I’ve had numerous conversations with Singleton in which he said he disagreed with me (on concentration of media ownership, on duopolies, on cross-ownership) but respected my right to make my arguments.

Sirota is a good thinker, but he’s oversimplified the picture in “The Only Game in Town” in Harper’s. He talks about what he calls a “deathbed resurrection” by the Post without looking at the hustle, the work of those on the inside.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.